


Chance

by stellamaru (tzy)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Yuletide, Yuletide 2003
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-12-25
Updated: 2003-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-05 00:44:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/400022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tzy/pseuds/stellamaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A chance encounter and possible second chances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chance

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2003 Yuletide. Yes, HP rarepairs were allowed the first year!

Harry stood alone on the eerie, quiet corner. Blocks away, the Muggle world bustled about its business, oblivious to this shabby, deserted street. A dark pub was the only sign that humanity had not abandoned this section of the world. The battered red telephone box waited next to a graffiti-covered building.

It was under his feet: the Ministry, the Department of Mysteries, and the veil. He took a step off the curb, towards the telephone box, only to pull back. He'd sneaked away five times since the end of term to come here; each time, he stopped short of going in.

What would his name badge say this time, he thought, "Harry Potter, Picking at Wounds"?

He stayed on the corner until a light rain spattered his glasses. The underground station was several blocks away. The pub was a half-block away. It wasn't much of a choice.

Inside, it was just as dark and unwelcoming as it appeared from the street. A few men sat at the bar, hunched over their drinks; they were as shabby and gray as the room itself, all except for one man.

At the end of the bar, a tall, lean man sat hunched over, staring at a vague spot on the floor. Harry wouldn't have noticed him, but for one thing--his unmistakable Weasley hair. Percy Weasley, nursing a drink in a Muggle pub. Next to him was a Muggle, a few years older than Percy. They sat like strangers, except that under the bar, the man was rubbing his fingers over Percy's thigh in a very intimate manner.

Harry almost turned and walked out, but Percy looked up at the sound of the door and saw him. He blinked and half-smiled in recognition at Harry, then seemed to shut down. His shoulders drooped. He brushed off the Muggle's hand and glared at the man, who frowned and stomped away.

The walk from the door to the bar took nine steps, and with each one Harry thought about leaving. Percy shrugged and drew his body into a tight, hunched posture. He didn't look at Harry.

After squinting at Harry suspiciously for a moment, the bartender poured him a pint and went back to the business of minding his own business.

Harry settled in next to Percy, who still hadn't said anything or even moved an inch.

"I thought there might be more of us here," Harry said, low and soft. Percy jumped as if he'd shouted. "Being so close to the Ministry."

"No one uses that entrance except visitors," Percy said, after a few long minutes.

"And you."

"Right."

Harry took a sip from his pint and coughed. It was bitter.

"You shouldn't be here," Percy said.

"Shouldn't you be at work?" The beer wasn't so bad the second time.

"There was an-- accident in my department. I'm taking a few personal hours."

"What sort of accident?" If it was Death Eater related....

"Just an accident."

Harry took a breath. "Have, uh, have you seen--"

"No."

"They miss you."

Percy snorted and gestured to the bartender. He was drinking some sort of Muggle whisky. "They miss the Head Boy, not the Ministry buffoon."

Harry winced. He knew that was one of the things Mr. Weasley had accused Percy of acting like when they'd had their huge row the year before.

"Well," he said, swallowing another gulp of beer. He couldn't imagine cutting himself off from a family like the Weasleys. Maybe he ought to change the subject. "Who was that man? When I came in?"

Percy's ears turned pink. "No one. It's-- nothing."

"Yeah, that's what it looked like," Harry said. "Nothing. How's Penelope?"

The blush spread from Percy's ears to his cheeks. "She's well."

"Right."

"Look, Harry, you won't, er, I mean-- that wasn't...." Percy sputtered uncomfortably and downed his drink. "It just wouldn't do if there were rumors. My career is in tatters as it is."

Harry smiled. "That's why you're right across the street from the Ministry."

"I told you, no one uses that way. No one important. And no one ever comes in here, not even the Muggle Relations people. It isn't _interesting_ enough." Percy laughed, a tight, humorless burst of sound. "It'd be the perfect place for _You-Know-Who_ to set up shop."

They both went still, thinking about larger, more important things than furtive gropes in dingy pubs.

"Look, haven't you ever had something, a secret, that you couldn't tell anyone, not for anything?" Percy rubbed his eyes behind his glasses and pinched between his nose. "You couldn't tell anyone, but it-- it was like it was the most important thing about you?"

Harry was thinking about how to phrase his answer when Percy lifted his hand, as if to touch the scar on Harry's forehead.

"I suppose you haven't. It's all right there on your face. You probably wish it was a secret, sometimes."

"Why can't you tell anyone?" Harry said, drinking more of his beer.

Percy's eyes went flat, and his mouth curled up in a sneer that reminded Harry of Malfoy.

"In case you haven't noticed, our world isn't quite as... socially progressive as the Muggle world. Not that _they're_ anything to follow. No one would say anything right out, but I'd be ruined. I'd never get promoted, and no one of consequence would want me to work with them."

"But that's stupid!" Harry said. The bartender looked over at them. Harry lowered his voice. "I mean, why would it matter? And what about the others--there _has_ to be others, right?" It was very important that Percy answer this.

"Oh, there are others." Harry exhaled. "Everyone just sort of agrees not to bring it up."

"So then how do you, um, find out about each other?" Harry felt his own ears grow hot. This was the last conversation he'd expected to have when he started out from Privet Drive.

Percy looked at him intently. "There are... places, establishments, that are known," he said. His eyes were fixed on Harry's. "Sometimes it's accidental."

Harry finished his beer. "Like someone sees something they weren't supposed to?" He set his glass down on the bar and stared at his hands. 

A few seconds passed and Percy let his fingers brush Harry's wrist. "Yes."

Harry stared at his wrist where Percy had touched it, where he was still touching it. He gasped when Percy ran his thumb over the tender skin at the base of his palm.

"I've got a flat," Percy said conversationally. "Nearby. D'you want to see it?"

"Yes," Harry said.

.  
.

Percy's flat was small and bare. Once inside, he stopped. "I, um, you are-- you're starting your sixth year, right? You're--"

"Old enough," Harry said, grinning in spite of his nervousness. By a week and a half, but he didn't mention that.

"Right," Percy said. He stood quietly for a moment, looking at Harry. When he reached out, this time he did touch the jagged scar with his thumb. Then he bent down--he was taller than Harry by a few inches--and touched his mouth to Harry's in a soft kiss. 

Harry parted his lips and deepened the kiss, letting Percy slide his tongue inside. Percy tasted like whisky, and Harry hoped he wasn't too bitter from the beer. Percy's hands ran down Harry's back, pulling him closer. 

"Oh," Harry said, breaking the kiss when their glasses collided with a click. "Just a minute." He took his glasses off, and Percy did the same.

Then they were kissing again, long and slow and deep. It was wet, but so good. Percy's tongue was slick and rough, slipping in and out, along the whole length of Harry's tongue. 

Harry felt dizzy, and his legs were weak; it was like all the blood in his body had rushed to his cock. It was harder than it had ever been, he was sure of that, until Percy twisted his hips and grazed his own erection against Harry's. _That_ was the hardest he'd ever been, and he was suddenly worried about embarrassing himself.

"Wait," he said. His voice sounded choked.

"It's all right," Percy said. He kissed Harry again, and pushed him back, towards the softer-looking of the two chairs in the flat. Percy pressed his right hand on Harry's crotch, molding to the outline of his cock. "You'll like it."

"That's not really the problem," Harry said, moving his hips involuntarily when Percy took his hand away. He tried to focus on Percy's face, and then remembered he wasn't wearing his glasses. Percy was quiet. 

Harry chuckled; Percy never was good with jokes. "There's no problem," he said. "Just that it's too-- I don't want _it_ to be over too soon."

"Oh," Percy said.

"Right," they both said at the same time. Harry laughed and Percy smiled, a little.

"This part is nice," Percy said, kneeling to unbutton Harry's trousers and pull them down. Harry kicked them off and let Percy slowly tug his underpants over his erection.

"Um," Harry said. There was no problem at all. Just let Percy keep touching him, he thought. Don't think about Death Eaters, or Voldemort. Don't think about Sirius, Cedric, or anyone else. Don't think about how this is your best friend's ostracized brother doing this, or about how Percy's your least favorite Weasley. Just--

"Fuck!" Harry said, clutching the chair arm. Percy sucked the head of his cock into his mouth and licked the underside with his rough tongue. He wanted to grab Percy by his hair, but held off. He didn't want to rip anything out.

Percy swallowed around him and cupped his testicles, eliciting a gasp from Harry. 

"Again. Do that again." Now Harry couldn't keep from touching Percy's head. He dug his fingers into that bright red, stroking back and forth. 

Then Percy did the swallowing thing, and the moving his tongue thing, and the touching his balls thing all at the same time. Harry tried to warn him, but as soon as he said, "I'm coming," he was, in great pulses inside Percy's mouth.

When he opened his eyes, Percy was smiling at him. "Said you'd like it."

Harry smiled his own lazy grin. "Are you making a joke? Should we alert the _Prophet_?"

"More like the _Quibbler_ ," Percy muttered. Harry laughed and pushed himself off the chair to kneel beside Percy.

"Two jokes in a row--that's definitely _Quibbler_ material." He touched Percy's thigh, unsure about how to proceed. "Which, I'll have you know," he said, feeling for Percy's trouser buttons, "is a fine paper of some repute." He felt Percy's erection through the soft material. 

"Harry," Percy said, fumbling to undo his trousers and pull out his cock. "Just-- _now_ ," he said, taking Harry's hand and wrapping it around his length. 

"You don't want--?" Harry gripped Percy and stroked up, then down, feeling the slide of the foreskin and the wet stickiness of pre-come, all so familiar, but different.

"It's too much, after that. I wouldn't last long enough for--" Percy said, gritting his teeth. "God, faster." 

In less than a minute, Percy came, spurting all over his trousers. "Oh, fuck," he said, leaning into Harry. His red Weasley hair was stuck to his face with sweat.

"Joking _and_ swearing?" Harry said. "What would Fred and George say?" Percy stiffened beside him.

"They'd probably send a foaming stink bomb to my office, forcing the entire staff in my department to evacuate," he said.

"Sorry," Harry said, resisting the urge to snicker. He closed his eyes in Percy's hair. "What did you mean, 'this part is nice'?"

"You didn't think it was?"

"No, I did. Definitely. But, um, I liked the other part, too. I'd like to try all the parts, sometime."

Percy's ears went pink. "Come here," he said, stretching his legs out and leaning against the chair. Harry shifted and settled next to him.

"Who did you first do this with?" Harry said, yawning. "I mean, if you want to tell me." Percy yawned and spoke a name that had Harry sitting up straight. "Oliver Wood? You and Oliver?"

"It was just a once in a while school thing for him," Percy said. "I thought it was for me, too, but...."

"I don't think it's just a school thing for me," Harry said. He thought about Cho's damp, salty kisses, and about Percy's rough, warm ones. Then he thought about how his stomach felt when he used to watch Cho fly. "I don't think." He wasn't sure he could think about it at all, not with Voldemort looming in his future.

He yawned again. "I'm going to The Burrow next week." 

"Harry..." Percy said, feeling around for his wand. He did a quick cleanup charm on his trousers, and then pulled them back on, before collapsing next to Harry again. 

"They miss _you_ , not the Head Boy," Harry said.

Percy sighed. "Maybe you're right."


End file.
